Windham In Football Title Game? It's Fitting

Windham Pieces It Together

WILLIMANTIC — Raul Lopez certainly picked a good year to go out for the Windham High School football team.

Windham's last winning season had been 1984 (6-4). Only once since had the Whippets achieved a .500 record (5-5 in 1990). And last year, Windham's record was 2-9.

Lopez, a junior, caught football coach Brian Crudden's eye as a shot-putter for the track team. Lopez now is a starting inside linebacker on an 8-1 team headed for the Class MM championship game Saturday at 7 p.m. at West Haven High. Windham will play Newtown (11-0), which lost to Ledyard in the championship game last year. Newtown won the Class MM title two years ago.

At Windham, there is a sense of the pieces finally fitting together after four or five years of hard work and experimenting on the part of Crudden (in his eighth year at Windham) and the coaching staff.

Lopez is one such piece.

Thanksgiving Day, the Whippets had to defeat Killingly to advance to the state title game. Killingly had beaten Windham seven consecutive years. Late in the game, Killingly had fourth-and-1 on Windham's 34-yard line. Windham had to stop Killingly's momentum. Damian Dalrymple, Killingly's 200-pound fullback, got the ball.

Lopez, who learned his position in preseason, hit Dalrymple so hard he drove him back from the line of scrimmage. Windham won, 20-15.

"For me, that was my best hit," said Lopez, who is 5 foot 8, 180 pounds. "I'll never forget that hit. That last game, it was for the state tournament. If I had missed that tackle, I would've felt bad."

Lopez has 36 solo tackles and 52 assists this season, with one interception.

Said Crudden: "He had a great desire and ability to get to the ball, even when he knew nothing about the specifics of playing linebacker. He has developed into a very good player."

Mark Meakem is another piece that fell into place. Crudden calls him his most improved player.

Meakem, a 5-8, 160-pound senior, began playing football four years ago. He was a defensive end and offensive lineman on the freshman team. The next year, he played the same positions for the junior varsity. But he never felt comfortable.

"My favorite thing is hitting people," he said. "As a defensive end, I took all the shots."

About halfway through last season, Crudden switched Meakem to the defensive backfield and Meakem responded. He has 31 solo tackles and 34 assists.

One of Meakem's biggest plays came in a key game against CCC East opponent East Hartford. East Hartford quarterback Kevin Moore passed to tight end Tim McNamara, who caught the ball. But Meakem hit McNamara hard enough to cause a fumble, which Windham recovered in a 25-6 victory.

"I love this position," Meakem said.

Other pieces of the Windham puzzle:

Jack Jenkins, Windham's 5-11, 165-pound senior quarterback. He didn't play that position until last year, when he switched with the now-graduated Mark Popeleski, who became a receiver. Jenkins, who plays point guard for Windham's basketball team, can scramble or pass with equal ability. He has thrown 11 touchdown passes. "He's a smooth operator," Crudden said.

The emergence of junior running back Brian Labbe, who has rushed for 752 yards and 10 touchdowns. Last year, Labbe was thrust into two starting roles: linebacker and running back. "We kind of swamped him," Crudden said. Labbe's play this year has taken pressure off senior Peter DeCarli, who has rushed for 820 yards and 13 TDs.

Yet when Windham found itself down 15-12 after the first half of the Killingly game, the players began to fall into old habits, arguing over dropped passes and missed tackles. "That was the first time that happened this year," Lopez said.

At halftime, the normally placid Crudden hollered at his team. "Usually he goes over what the other team is doing," Meakem said. "This time he just screamed. We didn't bother with the other stuff."

The players stopped arguing. Windham rallied in the second half to win, something Crudden said would not have happened last year.

"We didn't have that knockout punch that seems to have developed over the last year," Crudden said